http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Ferdi-and-Talita/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Ferdi and Talita en-us Mon, 04 Jan 2010 21:51:30 +0000 Mon, 04 Jan 2010 21:51:30 +0000 Friday January 1stHappy New Year everyone May God our Father bless you this year and may happiness and peace be with you all.As the New Year arrived we popped a bottle of bubbly and shared a kiss. 2009 had been a life altering year. Wersquove seen much and through all our adventures and experiences wersquove grown much too. Itrsquos an amazing thing to look back on a year spent travelling http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/West-Coast/Karamea/blog-464436.html Tuesday December 29thAt 2am Talita woke Ferdi. There was a familiar gnawing sound coming from behind the fridge. After more than two peaceful weeks Mr Bus Rat was at it again. The game was afoot but we were ill prepared for his sudden return all of our well laid plans forgotten during the quiet weeks just past. While Ferdi was still rubbing sleep from his eyes Talita got a thick plastic bag an http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/West-Coast/Karamea/blog-463863.html Saturday December 26thWe hadnrsquot had rain for a while and Ferdi had been watering the garden every morning. This morning just after hersquod watered the whole garden it started to rain. It was the weekend so it shouldnrsquot have been a big surprise. After breakfast Paddy came by with a gift for Tony one of his flutes. Tony had mentioned that he used to play the tin whistle so Paddy http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/West-Coast/Karamea/blog-463315.html Wednesday December 23rdWe continued working on phone booth gluing the remaining battens in and pulling the back of the structure tight with the big clamps. Talita helped Margaret clean seven cabins while Ferdi helped John replace a rotten back panel on the booth. During a clumsy moment and with John watching Ferdi hit his index finger with the hammer. Smooth move John said nothing and Ferdi p http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/West-Coast/Karamea/blog-463089.html Sunday December 20thWe woke to another wet morning. Like wersquove mentioned before it seems to rain mostly on the weekends. On a doccie we saw they said that itrsquos because of the way we humans pollute the air during the work week that causes rain on the weekends. Apparently the water molecules attach themselves to dust and pollutants and then fall as rain when they become heavy enough. T http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/West-Coast/Karamea/blog-461966.html Thursday December 17thWe realized that wersquove not given much detail about John and Margaret from the Karamea Holiday Park. Well John is about 64 years old and Margaret seems to be in her late 50rsquos. Theyrsquove run the entire park on their own for the last eighteen years. About three years ago John suffered a heart attack. Luckily he was at the medical centre when it happened otherw http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/West-Coast/Karamea/blog-461330.html Monday December 14thIt seemed that in our absence the Bus Rat had invited some friends to come live in the bus as well. During the night there was a lot of squeaking and the pitterpatter of more than one set of little paws. We were in for a bigger battle than we had expected. Catching one rat might be possible but trying to catch many seemed nuts so we decided to use the cowards way poison.Af http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/West-Coast/Karamea/blog-460750.html Friday December 11thAfter performing our regular cleaning duties we decided to clean all the windows in the park. The West Coast of New Zealand has these spiders that just cover everything with their webs. If you park your car for an hour yoursquoll have a web by the lights another by the window and another by the mirror by the time you return. These spiders also cover any structure they find http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/West-Coast/Karamea/blog-460284.html Tuesday December 8thAfter breakfast we found Margaret and Morris a very nice older guy who also stays here at the camp and help where he can cleaning up a fallen tree behind the house. We pitched in and helped remove the cuts while Morris used the chainsaw. The chain needed sharpening and Ferdi quickly sharpened it. Talita had asked Margaret if we could take over the duties of cleaning the toil http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/West-Coast/Karamea/blog-459613.html Saturday December 5thWe woke to another wet morning. After a shower and breakfast we posted a blog and found some plans for building a canoe a kayak and a dingy. Wersquove already got the tools and the plywood so we decided to build our own canoe over the next month or so. It looks like a bigish project so wersquoll just take it one step at a time.We did some washing and read a bit. After http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/West-Coast/Karamea/blog-458975.html Wednesday December 2ndHappy birthday boeda Dewald Hope you had an amazing day an even better year. My God bless you and keep you and make all your dreams come true.Our alarm woke us early. We'd not been up that late in a long time. After breakfast we drove to the medical centre to have chest xrays taken. Because we're from SA and want to stay in NZ for more than six months they want to make sur http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/West-Coast/Karamea/blog-458214.html Sunday November 29thWe woke to a beautiful sunny day. Itrsquos hard to believe that the rivers flooded yesterday. Oh the fickle New Zealand weather We werenrsquot complaining though. We wanted our van finished and packed before the end of the day.We made tasty apple and cinnamon oats for breakfast then Ferdi set about finishing the last bits of the van while Talita tried her hand at Beer Br http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Christchurch/blog-458200.html Sunday November 29thWe woke to a beautiful sunny day. Itrsquos hard to believe that the rivers flooded yesterday. Oh the fickle New Zealand weather We werenrsquot complaining though. We wanted our van finished and packed before the end of the day.We made tasty apple and cinnamon oats for breakfast then Ferdi set about finishing the last bits of the van while Talita tried her hand at Beer Br http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Christchurch/blog-458021.html Thursday November 26thThe BusRat was back for a visit last night but ran off when we got up to see if we could spot him. After breakfast we put on some music and started working on the van with a vengeance. We needed it done by Saturday morning because we still have to clear the rest of the building site and cut up the remaining logs for fire wood.It was a blisteringly hot day but we made grea http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/West-Coast/Karamea/blog-456343.html Monday November 23rdWe spent the morning visiting the friendly people at the Karamea Holiday Park. Wersquod planned to say hi while we did our washing but we ended up chatting till well past lunch time. While the washing was going and between chatting sessions we quickly popped into town to pick up a few supplies at the grocery store.We returned home with heaps of clean clothing and Talita m http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/blog-456203.html Friday November 20thLiving out here in the bush is great. At night the only sounds are the crashing of the waves in the distance and the occasional call of a Weka. The sun brings electricity and the rain brings water to our lives. We love it here. It already feels like home.Unfortunately the bus is also home to ldquoThe BusRatrdquo. In the early hours of the morning he woke us again with hi http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/blog-455352.html Tuesday November 17thWe woke to a beautiful morning in the peaceful country side. Ferdi went to feed the chickens and in return they kindly left us two eggs. We made tea and enjoyed Talitarsquos rusks while sitting on the veranda. What a way to live We feel right at home here. Dave and Deborah might be in for a surprise when they return a couple of bussitters with no intention of leaving.Fer http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/blog-454566.html Saturday November 14thWe woke the morning very eager and continued working on the van. Neither of us had done this kind of thing before so found it hard to make decisions. Whatrsquos right and whatrsquos wrong Common sense seemed to be our only guide. Also in theory everything is easy. In practice however itrsquos really hard. For example itrsquos impossible to cut a straight line w http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/blog-453703.html Wednesday November 11thWe slept late again only crawling out of bed after 930. After breakfast we drove into town to help Bruce move. We found Bruce and Paddy sitting outside the shop on the public picnic benches. Bruce was in his element. His son Matai Kiran HallewellSmith was born just before midnight last night. He was beaming and very proud. He was able to watch the birth on Skype and spe http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/blog-453696.html Sunday November 8thWe hadnrsquot seen Wobbles in two days and we were really worried about her. Bruce walked down to the building site mewing and calling her. When we arrived down there we were very relieved to hear that hersquod found her. She was very scared and skittish having spent two nights out in the wild. At least we knew she was safe and still around.We continued with the structure http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/blog-452592.html